MTH HO GS-4 Northern With Smoking Whistle Ships


bob

Administrator
Staff member
1588126506483.png

HO GS-4 Northern With Smoking Whistle Ships
FEbruary 26, 2020 - The M.T.H. GS-4 Northern with our qall-new steaming quillable whistle in HO scale has arrived and is now shipping to M.T.H. Authorized Retailers. One of many features of the onboard Proto-Sound 3.0 Digital Sound and Command Control package, the whistle feature can be triggered using the DCS Digital Command System or any DCC Controller's F7 Function.

The Daylights linked Los Angeles and San Francisco "in a glorious daylight trip, streaking along the Pacific Ocean for more than a hundred breathless miles." Travelers were invited to "Step inside the Daylight and see the beauty and luxury that have already won the West. Notice the wide, soft seats in the coaches. They are cushioned with sponge rubber and turn to face the extraordinarily large windows." Presenting a glorious streak of orange and red from locomotive to observation car, the Daylights were a sharp departure from the SP's normal dark olive passenger cars.

Like all M.T.H. locomotives, our new GS-4 offers HO scale’s finest combination of detail, realism, and performance. Listen to the chuff of the drive wheels and throttle down as low as three scale miles per hour so you can admire the details as the Daylight glides past.

 
I'm not a big fan of the Daylight scheme, but I really do like the GS-4. I'm hoping they do a War Baby version.

That smoking whistle appears to be a game changer! It might severely limit what engines are run!
 
Five bills is a lot! Looks like the center drivers are blind, which would be a deal breaker for me. No doubt they did that to get it around 18" radius curves. There's also a lot of detail missing (piping outside the firebox, the water valves under the tender, tender to engine piping, etc.), which I'd expect to get for that price. Oh well, I didn't mean to crap all over it. Just my old curmudgeonly observations!
 
Five bills is a lot! Looks like the center drivers are blind, which would be a deal breaker for me. No doubt they did that to get it around 18" radius curves. There's also a lot of detail missing (piping outside the firebox, the water valves under the tender, tender to engine piping, etc.), which I'd expect to get for that price. Oh well, I didn't mean to crap all over it. Just my old curmudgeonly observations!

I suspect you might be happier with the Broadway Limited Version. Not only does it have nice details, but with an MSRP of $450, it's cheaper too.

It looks like it may no longer be in production though. You can likely find them at train shows however.

 
Actually Bob, I'm more of a brass guy. The 1970's-early '80's models of these engines are out there in fairly large numbers. I can buy one of those for in the $250's plus or minus a little (my personal best is $195, but the average is a little higher and it's easy to get a nice one for $300). The later ones have can motors and I just have to install my own sound. I can't have smoke, but my club doesn't allow it anyway. But again, not crapping on either one. I've seen the earlier MTH GS-4 and the Broadway model. Both were good efforts and will appeal to many. Mike seems to have at last made his models a little easier to deal with for those of us who insist on keeping our DCC. Here's one of mine. It's actually a GS-5, but the differences from the 4 are very minor:

Westside GS.JPG


Unfortunately it will not take an 18" radius. I've never tried but I'd guess it needs at least 24". Maybe 22"
 
I'm still waiting to find out what these smoking whistle ships are that this engine apparently comes with. 🤔
 



Back
Top